1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments generally relate to automation systems, apparatuses and methods for assisting pre-connecting and connecting of framework devices or components by connectors, and in particular, to pre-wiring and wiring of electrical devices in control panels of electrical substations by wires, to pre-connecting and connecting plumbing units of modular or prefabricated homes by pipes, or to pre-connecting and connecting optical control devices in optical telecommunication racks of a telecommunications environment by optical fibers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrical devices are electrically connected by electrical wires. Such electrical devices are installed, for example, in control panels of electrical substations. Electrical devices in the control panels are used to control functions of the substation and to display operating parameters. Electrical wires are also used to connect the devices in the control panels with field devices of the substation.
When electrical substations are designed, design engineers typically create engineering drawings, such as wiring diagrams, which show, for example, electrical control devices that are installed in the control panels and wires that electrically connect the control devices. These wiring diagrams may be used by construction electricians who install the electrical substations and also by field electricians who troubleshoot installation issues or technical issues during operation of the electrical substations.
Wiring diagrams can be created in the form of computer-aided design (CAD) drawings by a CAD software. An example of such a CAD software, which is used for creating CAD drawings, is AutoCAD® from Autodesk.
Engineering drawings may not simply contain graphical representations of electrical components, such as electrical devices or wires. Instead, engineering drawings may also contain additional information about the electrical components which may be extracted and imported into a data store.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0236711 describes the extraction of information about components of a design file can be automated. The extracted information is stored in a data store. This allows to index the information extracted from the design file and to link the information in the design file to entries in the data store in a persistent manner, so that a user can browse, search and display the extracted information.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,218 describes a CAD data object model and an interface which captures and stores information relating to CAD data. A method is provided which allows to capture, store, and retrieve CAD model data in a tool neutral from, i.e., without having to enter the CAD tool. Interfaces to object models allow tools, such as CAD tools or Product Data Management (PDM) tools to read and write data to the corresponding data sets. This allows to analyze information of interest contained in a plurality of CAD drawings.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,996,503 relates to analyzing a two or three-dimensional CAD drawing to take-off information about materials and costs to create a bill of materials (BOM) for projects in architecture, civil engineering, machinery, and facilities.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0140357 describes CAD drawings that include non-modeled or “virtual” components that are not relevant to the design process. Instead, the non-modeled components are provided to generate a more accurate BOM that includes information from the non-modeled components. A database is provided which stores a parts catalog including a set of pre-modeled elements that a designer can include in a design.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0120070 describes creating specification files used by a CAD application to create CAD drawings for plant piping design. The specification files are used to create CAD drawings that comply with industry standards and the requirements of the industry standards are incorporated in the specification files.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0241471 describes propagation of information among workflow applications. Information from various sources, including CAD tools, is represented and modeled in an animation system (animated computer graphics program). Data is collected in a master database via adapters.
In summary, in the related art, the information extracted from the CAD drawings is used to generate a Bill of Material (BOM) or for indexing components of a facility in a general database. It is also used to allow several engineers to independently access the data extracted from the CAD drawings via the data store or database into which the extracted information is imported.